44.258° N, 9.425° E
Complete guide
Riva Trigoso beach: beach guide
What the beach is like
Riva Trigoso beach belongs to the frazione of the same name in the municipality of Sestri Levante, in the metropolitan city of Genoa, and faces the Ligurian Sea. The frazione is made up of two parts: Trigoso, the older one, inland and on the hillside, and Riva, on the sea. Riva looks onto a wide gulf enclosed by two headlands: punta Manara on the west side, behind which lies Sestri Levante, and punta Baffe on the east side, behind which lies Moneglia. The Petronio stream flows into the centre of the gulf and divides Riva into two parts, the Ponente area and the Levante area. In summer the stream is often dry, sometimes completely, while in winter it fills up quickly.
Both areas have a seafront promenade running along a very wide natural beach, with about 1.2 km of shoreline in total. The Ponente area keeps the look of a typical old Ligurian fishing village. The Levante area consists largely of twentieth-century houses and is home to the Fincantieri shipyard. The two coastal villages of Levante and Ponente grew up along the wide beach on either side of the mouth of the Petronio and, despite the bulky presence of the shipyards, have kept the traditional look of a fishing village.
Riva has two beaches: the larger and more crowded one lies by the centre of the village, while the other, towards Moneglia, lies in the area called borgo Renà. The latter, although considerably smaller, is no less busy than the first. The two beaches are separated by the shipyards. In the part towards Moneglia there is a rock called Asseu, which rises out of the water and until 2020 could be reached by a footbridge, later dismantled. The shipyard was founded on 1 August 1897 by senator Erasmo Piaggio between the Levante area and the borgo of Renà, where it still stands today. In 2004 the aircraft carrier Cavour was launched here, the last launch carried out with the hull entering the water directly. Because of these industrial installations Riva has never been able to present itself as an exclusively tourist resort.
Getting there
Sestri Levante lies 2.7 km as the crow flies to the north-west of the beach and Moneglia 5.6 km to the south-east. Riva Trigoso can be reached by car, by public transport, by bicycle or on foot along the trails.
The frazione is crossed by the Genoa–Pisa railway line, with Riva Trigoso station located away from the rest of the village. It is served by Trenitalia regional trains running between Sestri Levante, the Cinque Terre and La Spezia. For those travelling by road, the closest exit is Sestri Levante on the A12 motorway. The SS1 Aurelia runs along the edge of the built-up area and over the hills behind it. The bus services linking the frazione every day with the surrounding towns have been run by AMT since 2021.
Towards Moneglia and Deiva Marina runs the coastal road known as the road of the Gallerie (tunnels), regulated with alternating one-way traffic by traffic lights because the tunnels, used by the railway until 1932, are very narrow. According to Wikipedia, since 27 March 2025 the Gallerie road has been closed to traffic along its entire length for extraordinary maintenance works, with an estimated duration of about two years.
When to go
According to QualeSpiaggia data, the beach faces south. With the scirocco, the ostro and the libeccio the wind comes from the sea and the beach is exposed to waves and rough sea. With the tramontana, the grecale and the mistral (maestrale) the wind blows from the land and the beach is sheltered, with calmer water close to shore. The levante and the ponente, on the other hand, blow across the shoreline. These are indications derived from the orientation of the coast, not weather forecasts.
The Levante area is very crowded, especially during the summer season. In July the Bagnun festival takes place, named after a local seafarers' dish made with anchovies, garlic, oil, tomato and ship's biscuits or rusked bread. The dish is handed out free of charge to locals and tourists queuing on the Ponente promenade. Around Ferragosto the Madonna del Buon Viaggio is celebrated, and on the evening of 15 August the festivities traditionally end with a fireworks display on the beach. On the evening of 16 August, in the Levante area, a Mass is celebrated on the sea, ending with a trail of small candles placed on the water. Since 2002, every 26 December, the Cimento invernale brings people of all ages into the sea for a swim in the middle of winter.
Seabed and sea
A wide beach of sand and pebbles stretches along the whole length of the gulf. In the 2025 season the bathing water of this stretch is classified as excellent by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
On the seabed off the bay of Riva Ponente, at a depth of about 12 metres, one of the two copies of the Presepio dei Delfini had been installed: a bronze group by the sculptor Pietro Ravecca, made in two copies in 2002. The Presepio was later damaged and restored, has not been put back in the sea and now stands in the public gardens of viale Rimembranza in Sestri Levante.
Facilities and free beach
In 2026 Riva Trigoso is among the Sestri Levante beaches on the list of Blue Flag (Bandiera Blu) beaches compiled by the FEE. In the Ponente area the beach is entirely free. The Levante area, by contrast, has the main shops and the bathing establishments. In the Ponente area the old Cantierino was demolished between 2012 and 2016 and replaced by a building with a bar, a library and a conference room, and by a new section of the seafront promenade.
Nearby
Portobello beach lies 2.8 km as the crow flies to the north-west and Cavi beach 5.1 km away, also to the north-west. Near punta Manara stands a Saracen tower. A walk leads to Punta Manara, 166 m above sea level, on a path that starts from an arcade on Via XXV Aprile in Sestri Levante and reaches the tip of the headland in about 1 h on foot. The waymarks are two red squares. From the cape you can see the Sestri headland with the Baia del Silenzio and, on the other side, Riva Trigoso. The route can be done in all seasons, even by children.
In Riva stands the parish church of San Pietro apostolo, built between 1861 and 1863, with a pipe organ built in 1896 by the Pistoia organ builder Filippo Tronci. In Trigoso the parish church of Santa Sabina has in front of it a churchyard with a mosaic of sea pebbles, recreated in 1998 from the original made in the nineteenth century.